


Respiciō

by anstaar



Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Ableism, Childhood, Gen, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-01
Updated: 2011-07-01
Packaged: 2017-10-20 21:54:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/217471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anstaar/pseuds/anstaar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A classmate’s opinion of Miles; any time from grade school through the academy</p>
            </blockquote>





	Respiciō

Alexis was halfway to school when Jean, red faced and panting, caught up to him. Alexis' jaw almost dropped open in surprise. In the preceding semester, Jean had earned many misconduct marks for his tendency to show up late and disheveled, ho matter when, and in what state, his parents had sent him off. "You'll never guess what's happened," he panted, stumbling to keep up with Alexis' smart march.   
  
"I know it's not that you realized that all those extra laps you earned really didn't you any fitter and decided to start up an exercise regime over break," Alexis said, easily ignoring Jean's less-than-potent glare. Unusually, his friend did jump on him and attempt to wrestle him to the ground (a task Jean consistently failed to achieve, despite his height advantage).  
  
"No, con, we're gonna get a mutant in our class!" At that declaration Alexis had to stop, even though showing shock was a sure way to leave Jean smug.  
  
"No chance."  
  
"Totally true, I heard pa talking." Jean used his ability to pack smugness into every syllable to its fullest extent. "It was supposed to start last semester but had a 'medical emergency' and then the parents didn't want to shove it in during the middle so it's starting now."  
  
Alexis shook his head, "I can't believe Leclair would do that." Amazingly, Jean managed to look even smugger.  
  
"Believe away. The parents are some sort of super Vor, apparently, what they say goes. Plus, Ab told me that in the capital they're trying to show all-encompassing mutant love cause of those new laws that they shoved through and Leclair could lose his job of he didn't accept it. Besides, everyone knows he wants to go back into the government and he thinks this will give him some credit."   
  
Alexis continued walking, though at a slower pace, considering this new information. Jean's brother was an ensign posted to the capital and an usually reliable source of information. "What type of mutie?" He asked, fascinated despite himself.  
  
"Don't know," Jean admitted, "Pa siad that they had to set things up special cause of its 'needs,' but then he saw I was there and started going on about not bother the mutie, like I would go near. Ab said there was a big argument 'bout whether or not he could get his own special uniform but they argued it down cause Leclair said he wasn't changing the code short of an imperial command." Jean grinned again, "Probably has three arms."  
  
"Probably has three eyes," Alexis retorted, "They'll have to set up special cheat sheets so he can't be looking at our answers with the one on his neck."  
  
Jean laughed, "Probably has four legs. You'll have to watch out to defend your time on the track." Jean demonstrated his version of how a four legged boy would run and then mimed the fit Volkov would have if he had to put a mutie's face up for best runner." Alexis laughed again but he couldn't help the icy shiver down his spine when he imagined actually having to see the mutant.  
  
Still, he craned his neck just as much as Jean when he saw the unfamiliar hovercar that was sure to indicate the presence of Vormutie, as Jean had dubbed him. The desire to see even surpassed the temptation of tweaking Reg, who had no idea what they were waiting for. First to emerge from the craft was a hawk faced man with a military bearing that would live up to even Volkov's ironclad standards. With a stiff turn he lifted something from the 'car and placed in on the ground. For the second time that day, it was only Alexis' training that stopped him from gaping.  
  
The...boy was barely bigger than his baby sister. The cadet uniform fit him worse than it did even leggy Reg. The uniform pants were bunched up at the knees over two shining metal braces and the shirt was draped awkwardly over the hunched, spindly frame ('like Vorschlimme,' Jean muttered, 'in Sixteen West'). The head was large and face twisted, though Alexis suspected that the twist was an expression, not another sign of mutation. At Alexis' side, Reg made the sign against even and he definitely wasn't alone in doing so. Alexis could feel his own fingers twitch. This was supposed to joint them?  
  
"He looks like on hit would kill 'im," Jean said, voice full of the fascinated horror Alexis shared, "guess you're gonna stay number one after all, Lex. Leclair is gonna throw an even bigger fit, though."  
  
"You knew about this," Reg spluttered, finally pulling his eyes from the mutie and his bodyguard, who were cutting a wide swath through the students as they headed toward the school building.  
  
"Course," Jean said, "I told you I got connections." This sort of statement would have usually spiraled into an argument but today everyone had more interesting things to talk about.  
  
"I wonder if it can talk," Reg said.  
  
"Probably," Jean said knowledgeably, "Vorschlimme could and he had the hunch and everything."  
  
"Vorschlimme was a Vor, too," added Marco, who had drifted over in the confusion, "My granma says that the Vor used to be all proper-like and would have never allowed something like that to survive, unlike in these degenerate times." Alexis carefully avoided eye contact with Jean. That did sound like Marco's gran, a woman whose fervent opinions had sparked conflict between the friends before.  
  
"Vorschlimme did trick his way in," Reg pointed out and the discussion turned to the likelihood of an actual Vor being tricked by one of Vorschlimme's fiendish plots. Aleix, who preferred Be True, wondered what the mutie would be like in class.  
  
As it turned out, it was weirder than he could have guessed. The first shock had come when the boy was announced as _Vorkosigan_ , to Marco's stunned disbelief. A shock which only grew when they were informed that, yes, it was _that_ Vorkosigan, grandson to Marco's hero. The second shock cam with the boy's sharp answers and high test grades. He certainly fit with the 'holos portrayal of muties as possessing lots of devious cunning. The third shock, though, was something Alexis had never expected. As he had realized the first time he saw the boy, the mutie couldn't join the exercises properly, not that anyone would have wanted him on their team or running beside (behind) them. On the days when he wasn't laid up with one problem or another, he just thumped around the track, one shoulder rising even higher than usual.  
  
That day, Alexis was tidying up the equipment area to avoid the dangerous fight that had started when Marco had told them that his gran had said that the Vorkosigan's were keeping the mutie (apart from the lack of a good Vorfemme was countess) cause he was a punishment for the Lord Regent's 'carrying on,' to which Reg had replied that Marco's gran was a treasonous old bag and, unsurprisingly, quite a bit of violence had ensued. Alexis' da had always warned him to get out of fights that got political; a good soldier didn't talk politics.     
  
The Vormutie usually regained his fearsome bodyguard shadow as soon as he wasn't being watched by a teacher but today the bodyguard had been called in for a talk, probably about Zeph and his friends' habit of 'accidentally' banging into the fragile boy (Alexis couldn't imagine how they could stand actually touching him). The mutie had been left on the empty exercise grounds, where through the window he would be protected by Volkov's absent minded, but fearsome, gaze. The boy stood, unaware of Alexis presence in the shadow of the shed. Alexis continued to clear things away but he moved slowly and silently, he wondered what the mutie would do when he thought he had no watchers. Maybe he would start cackling evilly, like in the 'holos. Any knowledge would be good to settle Jean, who was still acting pretty smug about his early info.  
  
The boy didn't start cackling, instead, he slowly bent down and removed his leg braces, letting his pants fall down over his shoes and stood up straight. It was the first time Alexis had seen him without the braces or casts. The slight hunch remained but, for the first time, he could have almost been a normal kid. Alexis was reminded again of his sister. When you couldn't see his face the mutie looked uncomfortably young. The boy bent his knees a few times and then started to run. He wasn't particularly fast and he moved at a weird gait, what with one leg being obviously longer than the other, but he moved fast enough. For the first time, Alexis saw his face relax into a smile. It was a strangely wondrous moment that Alexis felt almost part of. The feeling was broken when the boy tripped over a flapping pants' cuff and fell badly to the ground. He lay there, clutching at his obviously broken leg.     
  
Alexis was frozen, unsure of what to do. He was grateful when the choice was taken from him with the arrival of the bodyguard, no doubt summoned by Volkov. The man picked the boy up with a grunt that couldn't be from the effort of lifting his tiny charge. With several low words, he produced a plastic sleeve which he applied to the leg. The man shook his head with a look that appeared almost long suffering. Much later, lying in bed, staring at the model of the empire that swung gently above, Alexis found his mind turning back to the fact that in the whole time he lay there, Miles never made a sound.


End file.
